Elgiganten: Our store network is a perfect combination with Phone House

ReporterAugust 7, 2014August 7, 2014Comments Off on Elgiganten: Our store network is a perfect combination with Phone House

Updated. Following Dixons’ fusion with Carphone Warehouse today – the subsidiaries in Sweden will officially join their forces.
“We see great synergies being under the same roof and being able to handle even higher volumes. But also to be able to offer a more complete range and offer locations we have not had before as Elgiganten has been in shopping centers outside the cities”, Swedish CEO Niclas Eriksson tells ScandinavianRetail.com.

Swedish Elgiganten-CEO, Niclas Eriksson, will be head of the common organization – Daniel Lindholm will go on leading the Phone House concept. Technically, Phone House will be included in Elgiganten AB’s organization, but on legal paper it is Elkjøp Nordic which will own Swedish Phone House which makes them sister companies.

Both chains will operate under its own brand as before.Is this your Elkjøp Express?
“You could say that it is an alternative to it. But what we have looked at what is happening in the retail trade and how we can be closer and more accessible to the consumer.”
Sweden is the only Scandinavian country where Phone House is operating and its activities differs somewhat from England.
”One should also remember that Dixons had no cell phone business in its portfolio in the UK. So it adds an extra dimension in England.”How will this be noted in the Swedish business?
“I can not say yet. We’ll go through the entire operations and see what we can learn in the coming months”, Niclas Eriksson says.
In England, however, Carphone Warehouse opened shop in shops immediately in several Curry’s stores.Have you really not progressed further in Sweden?
“We have worked with it, but have not been allowed to share numbers and figures yet. So, this is really the first day we can start to look at this, our assumptions and change plans ”
Therefore Niclas Eriksson does not want to say which collaborations that will be put into action.
”We will operate the same way until we find out the best strengths of both companies. There are lots of ideas that we’ll try to put into action now, which we’ll come back to later.
It is important that we stick to the facts we have today.”
However, some large and obvious conclusions are there:
“I see synergies in volume and synergy effects for consumers because we complement each other in locations where we will have a greater availability for the common consumer. We are outside city centers today in large shopping centers, so for us this is a great combination between the mall and downtown’s shops, so we see it as a very good combo. Elgiganten and Phone House’s store network complement each other very well. ”
Besides today’s merge, Niclas Eriksson says that the focus is on rolling out the chain know-how-concept.
“We continue to try to develop ourselves, but we must be even better seeing the big solutions for the consumer. The differences between each individual need is growing.”
Together Elgiganten AB and Phone House have 177 stores and 3,600 employees.